Know this is the Bonaire board, but thought I'd share a trip report mostly about our snorkeling adventures from St. John for any who are interested... enjoy.
Hotel:
Once again we splurged and stayed in a beachfront room at Caneel Bay. We requested the main beach
(Caneel) when we booked our room as it our favorite spot to hangout. It is the most crowded at Caneel, but that is a very relative term. We like it for many reasons: the great snorkeling to the point on the right; the afternoon sun is hot; the water is always calm; you can watch the boats come and go; perfect view of the Caribbean Sunset; most of the resort services are within easy walking distance. We hadn't been to Caneel in
about 3 years, and found that the Caneel Beach rooms now had A/C and the bathrooms had been re-tiled. Enjoyed having the A/C for sleeping at night. The staff and servers seemed pleasant enough to me, and we had no complaints about the service. There is an early morning continental breakfast up until 7:30 and it is free. After that you eat the buffet or go elsewhere. My wife loves getting the little cards and shells on her
pillow at night. We love Caneel for it's location and I can't imagine staying anywhere else while on St. John. Nothing compares to staying right on the beach, at least for us.
Snorkeling/Exploring:
We were on St. John for 5 nights, but I will only go into agonizing detail for the 4 full days of our trip!
Day 1: Explored the Caneel beaches on our first full day so that we could unwind a little from the prior days travels. Started off at Turtle Bay beach. We had grand visions of snorkeling around the entire Turtle Bay point and then over to Caneel's section of Hawksnest. We made it easily to the first point at Turtle Bay, and continued towards the seaward most point separating this area from Hawksnest. A huge set of rocks point like a finger out in the channel at this point. About 50 yards from these rocks common sense
prevailed and we turned back. We were bobbing up and down in 3-4 foot swells, and the sea was coming in hard and fast through the channel. Not to mention the boat traffic that runs through this channel. In any event, this is a great beach to snorkel. Both sides of the bay contain healthy hard and soft corals, and plenty of fish to see. The farther out you go the better it gets. Look around a bit and you're bound to spot angelfish, filefish and perhaps even lobster. Once we saw a little octopus here. After lunch we headed back
to our room and the main beach at Caneel for an afternoon of snorkeling and sun. We headed out to the rocky point on the right hand side of the beach. This area is mostly rocks, but has plenty of coral growth on and around the rocks as you go towards the point. It is a place where you never know what you might see! I guarantee you will always see angelfish here if you look for them. Today we saw gray angels, French angels, and later on I saw a pair of queens and a juvenile queen. My wife had spotted a small spotted eel
around the rocks, and I was going in for a closer look when I heard her yelling and pointing. Looking at where she was pointing and I saw a 3-4 foot nurse shark patrolling the sand at the base of the rocks. We followed the shark for several minutes, and then it disappeared into deeper water. About 10 minutes later, we saw it again as we proceeded around the point. Guess it was watching us too! Always cool to see a nurse shark that's not resting at the bottom or under a ledge. Later in the day I snorkeled all the way around this same point, and into Scott's Bay to look for turtles. Not only did I see a turtle, but found a spotted eagle ray about 2 minutes later. I followed the ray and watched as he foraged in the sand for a meal. These are
beautiful creatures that look like they are flying when they flap their wings. Enough said for day 1.
Day 2: Picked up our rental car and decided to begin the day with a trip to Ditleff Point. Again, we had grand visions of exploring the entire point, but high seas on the east side prevented us from attempting this. Snorkeling in 3-4 foot breakers is not my idea of fun. Instead, we headed down to the beach on the west side of the point, which I believe is Rendezvous bay. First, decided to hike out along the coast to the point and we got to enjoy the view that is on the cover of the book 'St. John Off the Beaten Path'. Went back to the beach and snorkeled the calm waters of the bay. The bay is mostly sea grass, with some coral out towards the ocean side of the bay. While not the best snorkel of the trip, we saw a lot of neat stuff while snorkeling in the bay. Many different colored/spotted sea cucumbers, the largest conch I had ever seen (I
would say close to 2 feet!), and of all things a swimming dog! The dog belonged to a local guy (the only other person on the beach with us) and he swam out to us perhaps mistaking us for his master or worried we were going to do his master harm? He was friendly and we love dogs so it was pretty cool. Ditleff was a great place to relax, and I only wished we could have snorkeled the other side or had better visibility to venture further out. Headed over to Coral Bay to explore the east end and have a lunch at Skinny Legs.
After lunch, stopped at Haulover and went out to the beach, but again the seas were running high and crashing into the west side of the bay. We both thought we could handle the waves, but figured reduced visibility would not make for good snorkeling. Headed over to Vie's section of Hansen Bay, and did some snorkeling around the reef on the right side of the bay. Nice little reef, but not much fish activity. Decided to head back to the North shore, and make a stop at Jumbie bay, but ended up picking up a hitchhiker and took him back into Cruz Bay instead. Headed back to Caneel for the rest of the afternoon and went looking for the eagle rays. No luck this time but we saw several stingrays during our search.
Day 3: Bright and early we're off to Jumbie Bay for a quick morning snorkel. First ones there, yippee! Our plan of attack is to start at right hand side of the bay, and follow the reef line around the edge, across the bay, and over to the point. Starting out we're thinking this isn't to good, as the right hand side does not appear to be very alive, although we do spot some angel fish and other critters. As you get on the left hand side towards the point, the reef gets very healthy. We spot a small turtle just short of the point, and then continue out towards the big rock under the sea off the point. Here we see a queen angel at about 15-20 feet. Nice, dramatic area out here, and we are glad that we stopped to check it out. Now it's off to Lameshur bay. I had to ride my breaks all the way down the dirt road hill leading to Lameshur, but the road appeared
to be in better shape than the last time I traversed it. Stopped at little Lameshur bay first, but decided to park by the Yawzi point trail and snorkel there. After a short hike we came to two paths; one leading down to a small rock beach on the east side of the point and the other to a small beach on the west side. We
dumped our gear on the west side beach, carefully walked back to the east side beach (watching for cactus, ouch!) with our snorkel gear and entered the water. Our plan was to go around the point and catch our stuff on the other side. This was our favorite dive of the trip. The place was literally loaded with queen angelfish, including a near adult that still had it's juvenile stripes. As you near the point the water gets rather deep, and there are huge rocks that poke out from the sea that are covered with coral encrustations below. We saw large barracuda, tarpon, and a huge scrawled filefish among other things here. The point is the most interesting area to explore. The snorkel return on the west side was not nearly as interesting, but we were
still pumped from the experience at the point. We also swam quickly to the exit when we noticed some
goats wandering near our stuff. After some refreshment and snacks, we hopped back to our jeep and headed back to Great Lameshur bay. Parked under the big tree and did the rock scramble to the rocky beach that is the entry point for Tektite. Once again we're in the water, and heading for Tektite bay. We were a little
disappointed in the visibility here, but it's a pretty cool place anyway. There are some small caves to explore and the big rocks at Tektite are awesome to snorkel around. Saw a barracuda and several Nassau groupers here as well as a small moray eel in one of the caves. By the time we get back to the beach there is a small rain shower and we decide to pack it in and grab some lunch at Shipwreck landing. Were kind of exhausted at this point, so after a late lunch it's back to Caneel, some rest, and then a nice easy snorkel
along the rocks separating Caneel from Honeymoon beach.
Day 4: Today is the last full day, and we decide to do the morning snorkel trip out of Caneel since we returned the jeep in the AM. This is a nice trip out to Congo and/or Lavango cay area, with two stops for snorkeling. The trip is about 2 hours and runs in the morning and afternoon and most of the time is spent in the water. The trip is guided by a marine biologist (either Lucy or Kathy) and is 50$ per person. Congo was my favorite stop. This time we start at the deep point of the cay, and work our way along the shore and then back to the boat. Very healthy coral here and a lot of fish. The guide will explain things as you go along, and you might actually learn a few neat things while you're at it. After lunch, we decide to snorkel around
the point separating Scott's beach from Turtle Bay. We had tried to go the other way earlier in the trip, but were stymied by a strong current that practically had me swimming and kicking in place. Once turned around, the current shot us out like from the barrel of a gun. The current was not as strong as the previous day, but I still barely swam a stroke on this trip; simply gazed below at the fish and the coral and let the
current roll me out and around the point. The only time I swam was to make the turn to avoid being swept out into the channel. Later in the day we headed back to Caneel beach and I snorkeled the point there again. I was just putzing around when all of a sudden I caught the movement of something large on my left side. I
looked and saw this huge silver fish with a fluked tail, must have been 3 feet or more long and nearly as wide. Biggest fish I've ever seen outside of an aquarium. I followed him around the point for about 15 minutes, and finally left him alone as he looked like he was trying to feed. Continued on to Scott's beach, and this time found not one, but two spotted eagle rays! I ran back to the room and told my wife about the huge fish and we decided to see if it was still hanging around. It was, and we watched it for several minutes, and then all of a sudden it dives down, grabs a black sea urchin and munches it down. Most amazing thing I ever saw. Later found out from Lucy that this fish was in the Pompano family. After dinner that night, I did a solo night snorkel at turtle point. The male sergeant majors are not that impressive during the day but really shine at night. Found a lobster in open water and just enjoyed the spookiness of it all. If night snorkeling, be sure to check the surface waters. Saw these tiny shrimp like things that looked like bugs, and a small jellyfish that shimmered green and red like on TV. Also turned off my dive light and watched the firefly like bioluminescence around me as I swam. Phew, after all that I'm tired. Back to the
room for a couple of beers and a good crash. |
By Dave Krause on Thursday, May 9, 2002 - 1:16 pm: 
